A powerful formatting language developed specifically for this application allows you
to format your posts without knowledge of HTML. This formatting language is easy for
both HTML users and non-HTML users to learn quickly. There are examples after each
major section.

The code is a keyword to invoke the desired formatting (for example, green to produce green text and b to produce bold text). Formatting tags are case sensitive. Formatting tags may be nested within other tags. A comprehensive list of available formatting tags is available in this document (although the system administrator can turn off certain tags).

To use formatting, enter the appropriate code(s) in the text of your message or subject line. When you preview your post, your formatting will be displayed so you can verify that you have entered your tags properly.

The "Symbol" font, supported on Windows platforms, allows the incorporation of Greek characters which is especially useful for mathematical notation in many scientific disciplines. The following table gives available Greek characters in groups of 5.

Tag

Result

Tag

Result

\greek{abcde}

abcde

\greek{ABCDE}

ABCDE

\greek{fghij}

fghij

\greek{FGHIJ}

FGHIJ

\greek{klmno}

klmno

\greek{KLMNO}

KLMNO

\greek{pqrst}

pqrst

\greek{PQRST}

PQRST

\greek{uvwxyz}

uvwxyz

\greek{UVWXYZ}

UVWXYZ

Backslashes, and curly braces have special meanings to the interpreter.
If you wish to use these characters as text within a tag, you
must "escape" them as with a backslash. Additionally, when you are using a tag that requires 2 or more arguments and you want to include a comma within the arguments (and not have it interpreted as a separator), you must escape it with a backslash. See the examples.

Upon posting, you are prompted for an image file to upload. Images must be either GIF or JPEG format. Images must be saved on your hard disk. Your browser must support form-based file upload (Netscape Navigator 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ support this; IE 3.02 will also work provided that you have installed the file upload patch).

\attach{Text description}

Upon posting, you are prompted for an attachment to upload. An attachment may be any kind of file (for example, Word document, text file, or WAV audio). Attachments must be saved on your hard disk. Your browser must support form-based file upload (Netscape Navigator 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ support this; IE 3.02 will also work provided that you have installed the file upload patch).

You can hand-enter tables or you can paste in tables directly from a tab-delimited spreadsheet (such as Microsoft Excel). See the "Pasting Tables" instructions if you are pasting a table directly from Excel.

Tag

Description

\table{Table Items}

Creates a table of the Table Items (table HAS a border)

\tablenb{Table Items}

Creates a table of the Table Items (table has NO border)

\list{List Items}

Creates a bulleted list of the List Items

\olist{List Items}

Creates an ordered (numbered list of the List Items)

Table Items and List Items

The Table Items are divided into columns by commas and into rows by newline characters (carriage returns). Thus, the entry \table{1,2,3} would create a table with three columns (with entries "1", "2", and "3").

The List Items are separated by newline characters (carriage returns). Each List Item is given a bullet.

See the examples for further explanation.

Pasting Tables

You can paste in tables from tab-delimited spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. To paste a table, do the following:

Open your spreadsheet using Excel.

Select the range that you wish to paste as a table using Excel.

Choose Edit and then Copy.

Bring up your WWW browser.

Enter an "empty" table tag (such as \table{ } or \tablenb{ }) in your message. Do not put in any Table Items at this time.